Grow Your Business

"The most successful entrepreneurs I know aren't loners," says Thomas Harrison, business owner and author of Instinct: Tapping Your Entrepreneurial DNA to Achieve Your Business Goals. "(On the) contrary, most have a solid network of people who help them test their thinking."

Cash-flow and marketing consultant Kendall Summerhawk puts it this way: "When we're working by ourselves, from home, it's easy to feel busy without actually making progress. Or to get distracted with laundry, Twitter or answering e-mail even though those aren't the tasks that will help us leap our business forward."

Both Thomas and Kendall agree that the fastest way towards business success is by joining other people who are similarly committed to their goals, thereby keeping you motivated and on track. In short: join a "Mastermind Group."

Mastermind Groups are not a new idea. In fact, Napoleon Hill wrote about their power in his 1937 book Think and Grow Rich, after witnessing Thomas Edison and Henry Ford (who belonged to the same Mastermind) powerfully create and dominate their industries.

And it's not just for entrepreneurs, either: Some of the most enduring works of fiction--Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, and Dracula to be exact--were all created by members of the same writers' group within roughly the same decade, published one after the other.

Many industry, business, and denominational organizations have their own versions of mastermind groups, and some executive coaches also offer mastermind group facilitation services to help you reach your goals faster.

 1. Be clear about your group's purpose. This purpose must be clear even before you start inviting members. An effective Mastermind is one that is focused on a specific growth direction, yet still easily supports the members? individual goals.

"Networking" and "exchanging ideas," for example, are not effective Mastermind goals. Meanwhile, "developing visionary leadership skills" and "achieving yearly money goals" are.

 2. Invite like-minded members to your group, preferably ones who are truly open to learning from others and are ready to commit to reaching their goals. Keep your member count to five or six. Each member should have achieved a level of success in his or her field that others can learn from, and each one must be committed to meeting at a specific, regular schedule (usually twice each month).

 

3. Set clear guidelines about how each Mastermind session should be facilitated (members can take turns here), emphasizing the group's direction each time. Ideally, each session should:

• Start Positively, usually with the members sharing their small successes since the last meeting.
• Give Support, by providing a time when members can share their current goal-relevant concerns, and others can suggest solutions based on their own experiences. And
• Emphasize Accountability, by documenting each member?s action goals for the next two weeks, and assigning co-members to ?check up? on their progress.

4. Finally, keep your Mastermind group growing and thriving by maintaining a culture of trust, positivity, commitment to growth, and personal accountability. While some groups are created to last for specific time periods, other Masterminds last for as long as the members need them, even becoming more effective as people grow together in their trust and commitment to each other.


 

Aileen Santos is a Life ReInvention Coach & A-Ha! Trainer who brings "lightbulb moments" of clarity & creativity to individuals and teams.